Tag: language

It’s been a while since I’ve posted due to lots of things going on. Lots of things happening – mostly good.

Work is very busy at the moment. If we’re lucky we get chance to breathe.

A young chap called me today on behalf of his mom. I told him I needed her permission to discuss the details, to which he replied: ‘You can’t speak to her. She doesn’t speak English.’

I said I still needed her permission. He asked me what I wanted to say to her so I explained I just needed her permission to discuss information with him. He repeated all this to his mother in their own language. She then came on the phone and answered my request. All well and good.

The discussion I had with the young chap centred around the boiler. I asked if it had been serviced every year.

‘I don’t know.’ He replied.

‘Can you ask your mom?’

‘Mom. Has the boiler been serviced every year?’ He asked her in English!

The amount of people who call us who don’t know how to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is monumental. We get greeted with a ‘uh huh’ far to frequently. And this is usually people who have English as a first language.

I find it quite shocking that so many people either don’t have a grasp on their own language, or are just too lazy to use it correctly.